Multiple sclerosis in Jamaica

ABSTRACT

Four cases of clinical multiple scelerosis are described in indegenous Jamaicans, three of whom had never left the Island. Three were in the higher social grades and two were Negro. The course of the disease resembled that in temperate countries. A survey of other neurological cases among 10,000 in-patients and 1,500 autopsies reveal no evidence of syndromes which could be attributed to multiple sclerosis in an unusual form. It is concluded that multiple sclerosis in indigenous Jamaicans is extremely rare, but shows no unusual features